The Oculus Rift Website announces that the DOOM 3 BFG Edition will not ship with their VR headsets as a backer reward as originally planned, saying: "Unfortunately, we’ve been informed that DOOM 3 BFG Edition will not support the Rift development kit by the time we begin shipping." They are offering a choice of alternate rewards to replace the VR-enabled edition of id' most recent DOOM game with the choice of a Steam wallet credit, an Oculus store credit, or a full pledge refund for those who feel this is a deal-breaker. Thanks NeoGAF via VG247.

Im pretty excited. Hopefully its not too expensive AND doesnt require a gazillion dollar graphics card AND works with glasses (or with people who are shortsighted). Actually this last thing is the one thing that bothers me the most, im -2.5 on both eyes, luckily no astigmatism but hopefully I wont see a big giant blur when I put it on my head....

I can't understand how some of you guys aren't excited for this project, and for it to succeed. It's the only serious recent attempt to create a HMD (and an affordable one at that, planning for mass market).

VR is the holy grail of gaming. If you don't desire to be totally immersed in games, you're doing it wrong!

Creston wrote on Mar 18, 2013, 10:43:People don't want to wear simple glasses for 3D TV, but somehow everyone's going to want to strap the equivalent of a flight helmet on their heads for 480p immersion.

I hope the device works out well and that the backers get value out of it, but I just don't see this catching on except with the ultra-hardcore.

Creston

Yeah, especially when no one is making games for it either.

"During times of universal deceit telling the truth is a revolutionary act."

Baristan wrote on Mar 18, 2013, 16:20:@SectorEffectorYes it is in stereoscopic 3D. I was just saying that is not the main point of the Rift.

The version of the Rift shown at the trade shows was a prototype using a 5.6 inch display with a hillcrest tracker. The DEV kit has a 7 inch display, and a new head tracker that is 4X as fast. The Doom3 code used in the early trade shows wouldn't work on the DEV kit.

it may be stereoscopic, but it's not like the eye mashing vr headsets, or current active 3d tv glasses where the left eye has to deal with the image meant for the right eye and vice versa. there is no crosstalk, so there shouldn't be any of the normal 3d headaches, and crappy flickering and reduced brightness that are all deal breakers of current 3d tech. not to mention the use of gyroscopes to assist in the head tracking department which is most likely repsonsible for removing the usual lag that track ir or free track noir produces.

There has been a lot of talk about binaural sound on the Rift's forum, but there is no integrated sound in the Rift's hardware.The Rift has only one screen split in two(half for each eye with a resolution of 1280x800(640x800 per eye). You can read about the differences between the prototype shown at the trade shows and the DEV kit shipping this month here. They promises the consumer version will have a better display.

SectorEffector wrote on Mar 18, 2013, 16:30:Arent the 3D, Gyro the real bread and butter of the unit? What happened to the built in sound system, that still in there?

I'd say the point of this is total immersion. 3D, Gyro, etc is just the tech that when combined gets you there. The ultimate goal is to trick your brain into thinking your actually in the game world. For example here's an excerpt from a testimonial on tomshardware:

"The demo also saw the insertion of local towns folk. Some moved and some were stationary, talking to other NPCs about whatever fake people discuss. This is what really made my jaw drop the most: how physical the NPCs "felt". I would circle around a knight, keeping my vision focused on his helmet while my hands maneuvered my virtual body around its form. He seemed to be there – I don't know how else to describe it – a seemingly real person in armor with no apparent seams or polygon bleeds or anything. Naturally if you reach out, the knight really isn't there in physical form, but damn if your senses aren't telling you otherwise."

Reading that just makes me smile. And as I'm currently playing Skyrim, which would be an AMAZING fit, it makes the wait harder.

As for the audio question I believe your supposed to wear headphones but I don't know if that has changed.

Beamer wrote on Mar 18, 2013, 15:27:"Ready enough for trade shows" != "ready enough for the public to get the full game."

I don't think Carmack has said why they delayed it working in BFG, but the idea going around is that the dev version is quite a bit different than the unit they've been showing at shows. It's got a larger display for starters, with the overlap between the lenses different. Also has a new tracking system. And there's still no official SDK yet. In fact, they've been showing the dev kit version of the glasses, but having people use the prototype to play with it. When asked, they said their dev mockup wasn't quite there yet.

Most likely he didn't have enough time to tweak it to work correctly on the new dev glasses.

Seems to me like comfortable 3D is a big sell point on this. I wouldn't purchase this without the 3D, and I have a feeling a majority of the early retail purchasers expect that as well..

I would go as far to say that the very fact it has two built in displays should infer that 3D is indeed a very main point of the Rift. As a single display unit is possible for a headset with a gyroscope.

Arent the 3D, Gyro the real bread and butter of the unit? What happened to the built in sound system, that still in there?

Dmitri_M:I have a feeling 3D through these doesn't hurt nearly as much as staring at one image being strobed faster than we can perceptibly see while we don plastic sheets over our eyes to read the strobed imagery.

I bought TrackIR, and while I love it..I also don't use it that much. Mostly because I find it sometimes get's in the way of actually playing the game. It's just a bit of metal that sits on my headphones and it works flawlessly with most titles. Oculus Rift is too far down the peripheral road for me. A device I need to wear on my head close to my eyes. I think it will gather dust, but not after giving me a few headaches.

@SectorEffectorYes it is in stereoscopic 3D. I was just saying that is not the main point of the Rift.

The version of the Rift shown at the trade shows was a prototype using a 5.6 inch display with a hillcrest tracker. The DEV kit has a 7 inch display, and a new head tracker that is 4X as fast. The Doom3 code used in the early trade shows wouldn't work on the DEV kit.

Hellbinder wrote on Mar 18, 2013, 15:25:actually beamer... its been "ready" enough to show off at trade shows for months.

somewhere along the line this is about money.

That doesn't mean much, plenty of games shown off at shows get delays. Maybe they weren't satisfied with the tweaks to the gameplay to better support the headset, maybe they ran into some stupid legal or license issue that can crop up when porting an older game. Until they say otherwise all we have to go on right now is that its delayed.

Baristan wrote on Mar 18, 2013, 12:26:The Rift isn't about stereoscopic 3D. It's about fooling your eyes into believing that you are in the game. The DEV kit has generated a lot of buzz, but has a long way to go before it is accepted as not just another gimmick. Unlike other attempts at VR the Rift appears to have some game support. Star Citizen(Space Simulation), Hawken(FPS, Mech), Strike Suit Zero(Space Flight Combat), The gallery(FPA 'mist like' still in kickstarter),0x10c(Notch's space sandbox) and several other games(not all set in space...) promise support. With big name developers who have tried the Rift like Gabe Newell, Chris Roberts, Cliff Bleszinski, Paul Bettner... excited about it there is hope that the Rift won't be garbage like all the previous attempts at VR. Watching youtube videos of people trying out the Rift has me excited, and I can't wait to see it for myself, but until an Apple logo is slapped on it many people will be too scared to even try it.

I believe you may not be correct there. I watched Caramack talk about the displacement of each eye, hence it being stereo. It's two displays, one for each eye with slight displacement on each camera set ingame. I believe each screen is 1280x800 for the planned retail Oculus

Seems to me like it's about a Stereoscopic headset mixed with Track IR

Hence 3D when both eyes are completely covered and given independent displays isnt nearly as terrible for you as staring at ONE screen and having polarized lenses and or strobing lenses.

Beelzebud wrote on Mar 18, 2013, 13:12:So basically id wanted to do something cool, but their new owners told them their legal department didn't clear it.

Fail to see how you draw that conclusion.OR is giving $20. Sounds like they were going to give id $20. $20 is the retail price of Doom 3 BFG.

So Bethesda is actually losing money here.

And it isn't "id decided not to give it to us" it's "id isn't going to have it ready in time."

Amazing how some people draw such weird conclusions. There's zero way to say this was the attorneys' fault. More likely it was engineer priorities. And that could have been due to whoever was working on this missing deadlines or the PM/exec team deciding to reduce resources.

Beelzebud wrote on Mar 18, 2013, 13:12:So basically id wanted to do something cool, but their new owners told them their legal department didn't clear it.

exactly...

How do you go from big john being the main pusher and software developer for the rift.. showcasing it all across the country with doom 3.. that john has spent countless hours personally coding to work right... the rift and doom 3 have been paired together from the beginning...

to suddenly... nope not gonna work cant be done...

This is the problem with mega rich corps. 3 billion dollars profit a day isn't enough.. no we might loose a few thousand dollars on this deal.. forget it.

I do hope its successful, nothing drives improvement quite like success and VR has been stalled for far too long. Until we get some kind of direct brain interface or (space magic permitting) holodecks this sort of device is going to be the pinnacle of immersion.

Also with VR headsets there is less danger of a virtual Moriarty becoming sentient and escaping into the real world.